Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders College Football Pregame Quote, 09/09/2019

I’d like to start off by saying how much I and our players appreciate the fans that came to the game. It was really a great turnout, and it made the atmosphere really fun. It was fun for those guys to play in. It was loud, it was exciting. To everyone that was involved and had a role in that, I really appreciate you and thank you for it. We’re going to need you again this week as we play Duke. They’re coming off a big win last weekend. David Cutcliffe, their head coach, is one of the best coaches in this profession. He does things the right way. He’s been a winner all his life. What he’s done at Duke is really tremendous: the consistency they’ve had since he’s been there and how he’s turned that program around. We have all the respect in the world for Duke and their program, and it starts with him. They’ve got a lot of good players, and that’s a great team coming in. They’re very well coached in all three phases of the game. They have good players. We’ve got to be ready. We’ve got to correct some of the mistakes we’ve made in the first two weeks and continue to get better and get ready for this game.

On Duke quarterback Quentin Harris:

[Harris] is a great athlete. He’s got great pocket presence. He will run some in some predetermined quarterback runs. He’ll extend plays with his feet because he’s a good athlete. He’s got a quick release, and he gets the ball out fast. He’s accurate and can throw the deep ball as well as the intermediate routes and the quick screen game. He’s a really good quarterback, and Coach Cutcliffe has done a really good job developing him.

On getting the run game going early:

I said if Chaton [Mobley] carried the ball 10 times, he probably had five good runs and five bad runs. He carried the ball nine times. He did some good things; he’s got to do some things better. We only had the ball 23 plays in the first half against Tennessee State, so it was hard to establish the run. I thought we did a really good job of running the football when you look at the end of the game. We did a nice job of closing out the game running the ball; we did a nice job in the second half moving the chains running the ball. When you say ‚Äògetting the running game going,’ I thought we did some good things, we just didn’t have many at-bats the first half. If you’ve got 22 plays and you throw it 11 times and run it 10 times, you know it’s going to be hard to establish anything. We have to do a better job of getting off the field defensively and staying on the field offensively than what we did last week against Tennessee State in the first half. Chaton’s a good back, and he’ll be better this week and better next week as the season progresses. You get better each week, and he was better against Tennessee State than he was against Michigan, and hopefully he’ll be better this week. He did a lot of good things, and there’s a couple of things he’s got to improve on.

On facing Duke’s bigger wide receivers this week:

Last week Chris [Rowland] was a very dynamic player. He probably had over 200 receiving yards, and 96 and 40 of them came on two plays because we missed tackles. We’ve got to tackle better, and that’s not taking anything away from [Rowland]. I don’t want to discredit the type of player he is, because he’s a good player, but a lot of that was a result of our missed tackles. We’ve got to do a better job there. We’re going to face good receivers every week. You can ask me that question every week, out of conference in the people we play, and in conference there are some good receivers. We’ve just got to do our fundamentals, play to our responsibility and technique. As a defensive back, you’ve got to compete every play. They’re going to get you sometimes, and you’re going to get them sometimes. You’ve got to have a short memory and play with no fear, and that’s how we’ll do it.

On the play of Jarrin Pierce through fall camp and two games:

I really like Jarrin. I really like his personality and his smile. He loves football, and he comes to work every day. He competes every day and every play at practice. I love his attitude. He’s a good football player, and I like his toughness and competitiveness. I like his willingness to learn and get better every day. He’s had a nice start to his season.

On the key to covering kicks this year:

We’ve done a really good job. Our guys have bought into special teams. Michigan’s punter was great ‚Äî he’s as good a punter as I’ve ever faced. His ability to down the ball inside the 5 was really good. Then we had the goal line stand and had to punt out of our own end zone because we couldn’t get anything going and they got a short field. There were a lot of factors in that field position. On Saturday against Tennessee State, we did a nice job of covering kicks. We flew down there with a lot of toughness, a great attitude, great speed, no fear, complete disregard for our bodies. We ran down there hard; we covered hard. We did our job. They got on the 1-yard line after that interception, but we did a good job covering punts and kickoffs. The kickoff returns, we got a couple out of there this week; one we started close to midfield and the other we started in the 40-range, but we had a holding penalty. Coach [Dustin] Royston’s done a great job on kickoff coverage, and our players have bought into it.

On the challenge Duke’s defense brings:

The big thing is how disciplined they are. They’re well-coached. They don’t give up big plays ‚Äî you’ve got to earn everything you get. I remember Duke from when I was at Clemson and we played Duke all the time. Their talent level is really good. Coach Cutcliffe has done a really good job of recruiting players. They’ve got good size, good speed and are really talented. The whole team is, but especially on that defensive side.

On Coach Cutcliffe’s ability to get his offense going:

He does a great job of designing his offense around the ability of his players. Last year they had a first-round draft pick at quarterback. In years before they’ve had running backs that were really special and unique, and he leaned on those guys. He does a really good job of designing his offense around the ability of his players. This year’s offense is similar in some ways to last year’s offense when they had [Daniel] Jones at quarterback, but it’s different in a lot of ways also. His ability to adapt to the type of athletes and players he has makes him a special coach and makes his offense go.

On the difference in Duke’s offense this year:

Formationally and schematically, you’re probably not going to notice a lot of difference. There’s still a bunch of empty set, still shotgun, still throwing it a lot. They’re doing more zone read stuff with the quarterback, more predetermined runs with the quarterback, than they did last year with the guy they had.

On a relationship with Coach Cutcliffe:

The relationship is built on respect. I’ve never coached with him. I’ve had some buddies of mine that coached together at Clemson that coached with him at Ole Miss and at Duke. I’ve seen him at conventions or meetings, or he’ll call me to recommend a coach if I have a coaching opening. We’ve got a mutual respect. I’ve never coached with him, but I do consider him a friend.